Less than two months after
Goldcorp can earn a half-interest in Festival by spending $2 million by the end of 2006, and an additional 10% by spending another $1 million before 2008.
De Beers had been a partner at Festival only since July 2003. The major was drawn to the Wawa area by its unusual near-surface, volcanic-hosted (that is, non-kimberlitic) diamond deposits, which hold some potential for cheap bulk-mining. But Pele reports that De Beers completed a review of Festival and “concluded that [it] is not interested in the deposit type found to date within the property.”
De Beers’ work confirmed that Festival’s diamonds were derived from a peridotitic mantle within the diamond stability field at depths of at least 250 km, and that they are hosted in volcanic rocks that were deposited on the surface 2.7 billion years ago. The deposits sampled and modelled by De Beers suggest a macro-diamond grade of 10 carats per 100 tonnes or less at a cutoff of 1.5 mm.
For the moment, De Beers remains partnered with
At Pele’s Ardeen gold project, Goldcorp can earn a half-interest by spending $3 million before 2008, and can get another 10% with a further $1.5-million expenditure before 2009.
Ardeen was northern Ontario’s first gold mine, and it produced 30,000 oz. gold and 175,000 oz. silver during the early 1930s.
In recent years, Pele has completed more than 12,000 metres of diamond drilling on the property and outlined gold mineralization in zones near the mine’s existing shaft, which was sunk to the 366-metre level.
Pele and Goldcorp expect to complete the two option agreements by the end of July.
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